A blog dedicated to the Melungeons and their descendents and to the world in which they have lived . . .

Monday, October 12, 2009

Portuguese and Mestizos

By Guest BloggerBruno Guedes Quinhones

Note: The blog entry below was originally submitted as a comment; however, I did not publish it as the it had nothing to do with the blog entry in response to which it was made. After contemplating what to do with it for a while, I decided to publish it as an entry by a guest blogger. The opinions expressed below are those of Mr. Quihhones:

A phrase used in Portugal is as follows: "God created man and the Portuguese created the mestizo." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mestizo) Who knows the history of Portugal is well aware that the way of expansion in the early centuries was quite different from the other European peoples, like the Spanish, English, Dutch and French. When the Portuguese conquered land, the policy was not enslavement of people (if they were not hostiles, of course). This policy passed by intermarriage between Portuguese and local people. Thus, the children would have the knowledge of the two peoples and thus the occupation would be more peaceful! On the banks of the Indian Ocean there are many people who claim to be descendants of Portuguese and they even use Portuguese words. Here's an example: 366 years after Portugal left Malacca, there is people who call themselves Portuguese, speak a Portuguese-based Creole called Papia Christian (Kristang in Malay) and continue to profess Catholicism.

Probably the Melungeon are descendants of Portuguese.

Don’t forget one thing: the Portuguese, in the centuries XV, XVI and XVII were everywhere!

Many surprises are still to come about the world history in those centuries!

Greetings from Portugal!Bruno Guedes Quinhones

Note: While at this time I would not agree that the Melungeons are "probably . . . descendants of the Portuguese," I do note that they often claimed Portuguese ancestry, and I think it is unfortunate that over the course of the last 15 years so much time and attention has been devoted to the wildly speculative and highly improbable Turkish origin theory while so little has been devoted to the one "exotic" ancestry which the Melungeons actually claimed. I also note that if the Melungeons descended, in part, from Angolans brought to colonial Virginia, or adjacent colonies, as either slaves or indentured servants, it would account for both the Portuguese ancestry claim, Angola having been a Portuguese colony long before the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and the DNA results which show sub-Saharan ancestry in many Melungeon male lines.